Musing Over Matters: Candy Anthrasal and Angeline Kesia on Knob Knob

Furnitures have always played an important role in shaping the ambiance of a space, so we were especially intrigued by Knob Knob’s use of spherical details. On top of which, the way they combine both aesthetic and function seamlessly and the meaningful interaction the objects have with their environment. Since Knob Knob is manifested from the disarrayed images and scattered thoughts of peculiar objects, we wanted to have a thought-provoking conversation with founders Candy Anthrasal and Angeline Kesia about their world of furniture-making.

Read on for a contemplation of the human mind, exploring the virtual environment, memories of past collaborations and what they consider the most intricate piece.

1. What is your process for developing the signature spherical details for Knob Knob?

We’d like to think of the spherical entity being manifested within each Knob Knob piece as a representation of something small that holds the weight. Thus, not leaning towards the structural sense but rather into the non-physical sense where the sphere is there for and without reason at the same time. In instilling a certain kind of image to the human mind, that might trigger the question on what a sphere is to the piece? Whether it’s being interpreted as an extension to the piece or a fragment that stands on its own beat. That for the sphere itself to appear on the tip of a leg seems common yet also uncommon, that in the familiarity of its form and the unfamiliarity of its placement the mind may build up different grounds of understanding to the piece – regardless of it having any specific intent.

2. What is the most unforgettable project that Knob Knob has ever done so far and why?

Definitely a collaboration we did with Hej. We were intrigued by the two different entities and context being set to integrate with another. It was also our very first collaboration! Placing Knob Knob in a natural surrounding and seeing how the pieces reacted and responded to the enfolding environment, felt rather organic than the usual rigid settings that Knob Knob found itself being placed at.

3. After exploring a multitude of materials, what is the biggest lesson you’ve learned in terms of furniture-making?

Each of us holds a profusion of ideas and images on what a piece may look like and made to function in mind, but it will always stay loosely afloat if not made to realise into the physical reality. That in a way, the process of craftsmanship is a whole other intricate journey on its own, where it explores the relationship that the piece has to the facticity of materials that consist and hold the piece together. The materials hinged the piece into existence in the same way the piece itself is made to acknowledge its own beingness.

From the multitude of materials being explored, the entity of the piece seems to reveal itself through each joints, sides, and corners that unfold into certain kind of qualities whether hard, soft, light, heavy or anything in between the trajectories. That these ‘in between’ qualities have provoked us into identifying the duality within each Knob Knob piece. Where in one sense it may look rather delicate with its tiny elongated legs – but once felt, it is rigid and firm standing. Where in another, it may appear like a fragile surface not made for sitting – but once it’s sat on, it gives off quite the secure impression.

4. Which Knob Knob piece is the most intricate to make? And what are some interesting bits about it?

The Stooble has the knottiest aspects to it, that it presented itself to us with a vast field of greens to roll over, expand, and explore matters in its coming togetherness. The Stooble carries both the actuality of a stool and a table, that the piece is open for human exposition. It stimulates the kind of curiosity within human on whether to treat it as either one or neither at all? For it is always an interest of ours to look closer on how the human way of performing self-conduct is in skintight relation to another matter existing in its presence, hence making the Stooble a piece that allows us the room to constantly redefine the concept of seeing and understanding upon the commonly gripped notions out there.

5. How do you personally combine aesthetic and function?

We don’t really see aesthetics and function as two different abstractions of matter, for the two has their own specified portions in the wholeness of every piece. Hence, we think the way each portion was dispensed doesn’t come from a calculative place nor of a certain ground rules in furniture making, but instead it unfolds in a more fluid manner – with each one continuously making sense of the other. In this way, we were able to explore a wider range of possibility that may reshuffle the interminable argument of ‘which aspect to win over/prioritize?’, upon revealing a physical image of Knob Knob piece that doesn’t quiet go in sync with its expected properties from the sight – in questioning ourselves anew, how far does one thing considered as aesthetic before established as a form of function, and that way vice versa. We'd like to practice in acknowledging the wholeness of thing first rather than trying to combine the two. This allows us to knit the two aspects together unconsciously in the process.